>> Monday, October 10, 2016

The old Provincial Capitol is one of
historical buildings in the province where the columns and the chimney were
made of clay-bricks.

The building at the
south end then served as official residence of the governor manifested by the
demolished fireplace made of bricks.

The 2-storey
rectangle-shaped building was protected by brick –made columns and walls at the
first floor while the wall and columns of the second floor were of wooden
materials.

The sidings of
the capitol building then made of bricks
speaks of Bontoc once a brick town where able bodied and industrious
people from Bontoc then carried clay from the central part of the town
including Samoki and cooked this into bricks at Eyeb grounds.

The remnants of
Bontoc as a brick town then in the early years at the turn of the 20th century
are seen in the Barracks then called
Garrison and Saint Vincent’s School.

From colonial
architecture of columns and attics come to remind the history of a province
once part of the United States much as every part of the country holds a
colonial past.

The capitol building
with itsvery architecture tells the story. And history will unfold of a
structural design which tells the story.

The late Architect
Rene Luis Mata who heads the college of architecture of the University of the Philippines (UP) once said
during a heritage forum that a place with ‘no old building to see does not have
a story to tell.’

Colonial past and beneficial
cost

Mountain Province
apart from its rich cultural ways passed
from generation to generation holds
proud stories of not having been colonized during the Spanish period and holds
too a story of having been a part of the colonization of the country by the
United States. That is history that cannot be ignored. Along with the history
is a people who came under the beneficial benevolence of the American period
with their church, school, and hospital benefitting the people of Mountain
Province and other nearby provinces who studied in early schools such as St
Mary School in nearby Sagada and All Saints Mission School in Bontoc and get
treated to hospitals as St Theodore’s in Sagada and get to embrace a new
religion as Anglicanism in early churches such as St Mary the Virgin church in Sagada and the Cathedral in Bontoc.

The Capitol in Bontoc
while it tended to hold office as a
separate entity held political colonial control over the everyday undertakings
of governance and stay of foreign presence in this mountainous part of the
country.

And with the country
gaining its full independence in July 4, 1946 as the Philippine American Friendship Day, people in Mountain Province through their own
leaders too led to chart the people’s
destiny within the very halls of the Capitol.

The old capitol
building stands to hold history in the
governance of the province and how the political system then and now leads
harmonize the diversity and distinction of each tribe and peoples from the
different parts of the province; and attempts to unite issues and concerns into
one Provincial concern and resolution.

While it stands to
show the colonial architecture such as an attic and colonial past of governance
shows the materials in the walls and
posts are made of – bricks made from local clay that comes from the very
resources of the locality of the place made by the lot of industrious people.
Bricks that will remind the people of the Province that the province is rich in
natural resources the people can make use of for their own benefit.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction of the
capital building were noted in past administrations who altered the looks and
material of some parts of the Capitol but retained the façade.

While the frontage
was maintained, the right and left wings of the main building were appended in
the 1970’s during the incumbency of Gov. Jaime Gomez. The right wing became the
office of the governor while the left wing was the office of the vice governor.

In 1989, under the
leadership of the late Alfredo “Binky” Lament, Jr. who was then acting
governor, the old brick columns at the first floor were changed to concrete but
finished with a brick-like design.

The rickety wooden
porch or the veranda at the second floor was also rehabilitated during the term
of Gov. Maximo Dalog in the early 2000 and the shaky century-old veranda
changed to marble flooring.

And so through the
years since the ‘70s, the old Capitol building was reconstructed with a façade which persisted
to be re-enacted with simulated material while conserving the architecture and
story of the past.

The two storey
seemingly fire hazardous wooden building
built in the 1930s then used for land assessment and health offices at the back of the Capitol
connected to the main building by wooden footbridge was replaced with a four
storey concrete modern structure in 2008 to 2009 to accommodate expanding offices and
personnel of the provincial government.

What remains to be
physical history of Capitol ruins are the wooden floorings of the administrative
offices, treasury offices at the first
floor and galvanized iron (GI) roofings
of the now other half of the Capitol
building. This to include the strong and
durable century-old GI roofings from the
demolished other half of the building which may still be kept to be used.

Over a cup of coffee
with some Bontoc folks, Dr Rodel Bagawi
asks what historical façade are we reliving, voicing his frustration
that the overflowing façade of the Capitol had been destroyed with the
building of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan
Hall and the NCIP office at both sides of the landscape fronting the Capitol. A background similar to the
design of the colonial-inspired La Trinidad Capitol with an overflowing view of
the highway from the Capitol to Km 5 climbing up to a sight of the mountains
of Benguet.

Bagawi along with
other folks then gathered at the coffee table wish there shall be no more
structures to be built on the gardens fronting the Capitol building.

Indeed, for whatever
infrastructure to accommodate a growing government personnel may as well be
built in other parts of the Provincial lot to leave space for history to talk
about, a heritage to cherish, a space for children to play around, a space for
people to gather around, and a space to breathe about in the central part of
the capital town.

Tourism

In this contemporary times where tourism is the by word of the day and a
major source of livelihood, the presence of a Capitol building looking like the
Capitol of yesterday would be a story to
talk about the history of Bontoc and Mountain Province. History unfolded.
History as it was.

Ruins in other parts
of the world remain preserved for purposes of historical legacy serve as
tourism attractions. The capitol building is
a tourism attraction by itself.

Provincial architect
Noel Fagyan holds a different view. The customary ‘tinuping’ of crazy cut
design would be good to get etched on the columnar posts and the attic
portraying the rice granary look showing
affirmation of a people who have their own cultural ways and practices they
continue to pursue.

What now

Department of
Interior and Local Government (DILG) Anthony Ballug from the eastern town of
the Province shares the same view with former governors Gomez and Dalog. That
is, to keep the old design with the same two-story building and a frontage like the old one.

Governor Bonifacio
Lacwasan also wants a complete Capitol building
in place.

And for the funding
to build a new one, Lacwasan said the P29 million from the previous P166
million Land Bank loan in 2011 is available for the building of a new Capitol structure. Bulk of the said
P166 million loan by the way was allotted for the construction of provincial
roads in towns of the Province years ago and the loan getting paid from the
internal revenue allotment (IRA) of the Province.

Is the P29 million
enough is the question of some individuals and where to get additional funds if
needed is left to incumbent officials to source this out.

With voices retaining
the old architectural design coupled with no proceedings done to either condemn
or tear down the old structure, gets the Capitol building rest from its
issues and pursued peacefully for the
completion of one.

And with the recent
visit of Architect Ma.Luisa Valerio of
NHCP to “inspect and assess the remaining structure for possible
restoration, rehabilitation, or development”, sounds promising of retaining the
Capitol building’s historical look and building a Capitol, one that is complete
and durable, a historical and a monumental jewel to be proud of.